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A Study of Various Nationalist Appropriations of Nietzsche in the Weimar Republic By A Study of Various Nationalist Appropriations of Nietzsche in the Weimar Republic by Rex Anderton A thesis submitted to the University of Birmingham for the degree of MPhil(B) Modern European Cultures German Department School of Humanities The University of Birmingham September 2009 University of Birmingham Research Archive e-theses repository This unpublished thesis/dissertation is copyright of the author and/or third parties. The intellectual property rights of the author or third parties in respect of this work are as defined by The Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988 or as modified by any successor legislation. Any use made of information contained in this thesis/dissertation must be in accordance with that legislation and must be properly acknowledged. Further distribution or reproduction in any format is prohibited without the permission of the copyright holder. TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER ONE -- INTRODUCTION .............................................................................. 1 CHAPTER TWO -- NIETZSCHE AND NATIONAL SOCIALISM.............................. 16 History and the Völkisch Tradition............................................................................... 18 The Elisabeth Cult......................................................................................................... 21 Alfred Rosenberg, Volk and Myth................................................................................ 23 Alfred Baeumler’s Nietzsche........................................................................................ 29 Alfred Baeumler and the ‘Will to Power’..................................................................... 37 CHAPTER THREE -- ERNST JÜNGER AND NIETZSCHE ........................................ 42 Jünger in Nietzsche’s Shadow ...................................................................................... 43 Jünger’s Soldier-cum-Worker and the Nietzschean Übermensch ................................ 44 Jünger’s Modernism and Nietzsche’s Proto-Modernism.............................................. 47 Jünger and the Conservative Revolution ...................................................................... 53 Technology and Total Mobilisation.............................................................................. 61 CHAPTER FOUR – CONCLUSION............................................................................... 65 BIBLIOGRAPHY............................................................................................................. 76 2 CHAPTER ONE -- INTRODUCTION The aim of this study is to identify and evaluate the ways in which the works of the nineteenth-century philosopher, Friedrich Nietzsche, influenced or inspired a number of key nationalist figures in Germany during the Weimar Republic (1919-1933), and how this influence or inspiration is reflected in their works. The individuals concerned are the author, Ernst Jünger, and two Nazi intellectuals: the Nietzsche scholar Alfred Baeumler and the Party’s chief ideologue, Alfred Rosenberg. The decision to choose the works of these three individuals for consideration is based on their varying uses (and, in certain instances, abuses) of Nietzsche’s philosophical and political ideas, and the apparent similarities between these ideas and the ideologies of the Weimar intellectuals under consideration. Of the various Nazi or proto-Nazi examples of the ways in which Nietzsche is used,1 Rosenberg has been chosen primarily because of his official capacity in the NSDAP (Nazi Party) from 1934 to 1945, as ‘Beauftragter des Führers für die Überwachung der gesamten geistigen und weltanschaulichen Schulung und Erziehung der NSDAP’2 and his extensive writings on Nietzsche. Baeumler held a similarly prominent position, though not a political one; it is understood that his book Nietzsche, 1 These include but are by no means limited to: Ernst Bertram, Nietzsche. Versuch einer Mythologie 7 th edn. (Berlin: Bondi, 1929); Alfred Rosenberg, Der Mythus des 20. Jahrhunderts. Eine Wertung der seelisch-geistigen Gestaltenkämpfe unserer Zeit (Munich: Hoheneichen, 1930); Alfred Baeumler, Nietzsche, der Philosoph und Politiker (Leipzig: Reclam, 1931); Alfred Rosenthal, Nietzsches “Europäisches Rasse-Problem”. (“Der Kampf um die Erdherrschaft) (Leiden: A. W. Sijhoff’s Uitgeversmaatschappij, 1935); Johannes Klein, Die Dichtung Nietzsches (Munich: Beck, 1936); Alfred Baeumler, Studien zur deutschen Geistesgeschichte (Berlin: Junker und Dünnhaupt, 1937); Heinrich Härtle, Nietzsche und der Nationalsozialismus (Munich: Franz Eher - Zentralverlag der NSDAP, 1937); Alfred Rosenberg, Friedrich Nietzsche (Munich: Franz Eher - Zentralverlag der NSDAP, 1944). 2 See Hermann Weiß (ed.), Biographisches Lexikon zum Dritten Reich (Frankfurt am Main: Fischer, 1999), p. 385. 1 der Philosoph und Politiker (1931) set the tone for the politicisation of Nietzsche in the 1930s and 1940s3 whilst, more broadly, he fashioned himself as a public intellectual, stressing Nietzsche’s contemporary relevance in public speeches, radio broadcasts and articles for the NSDAP’s newspaper, the Völkischer Beobachter.4 This study is intended to distance Nietzsche further from Nazi appropriations and also to emphasise the significant ideological gap that existed between Jünger and National Socialism. Both of these topics have been heavily researched independently of each other (the former more than the latter), but the intention here is to bring them together and to arrive at a conclusion which defends Nietzsche from misguided or misinformed Nazi appropriations and Jünger from claims of (proto-)Nazism. 5 The two central chapters of the thesis deal, respectively, with Baeumler’s and Rosenberg’s reception and use of Nietzsche (these two representing prominent examples of a more general Nazi appropriation), and with Jünger’s reception and use of Nietzsche (which represents a more specific and detailed appropriation). The interpretations of Nietzsche included here are only three of many from the era,6 though the Nazi association in the case of Baeumler and Rosenberg, and the Conservative Revolution in the case of Jünger justify their close comparison here. The Conservative Revolution in 3 See Max Whyte, ‘The Uses and Abuses of Nietzsche in the Third Reich: Alfred Baeumler’s “Heroic Realism”’, Journal of Contemporary History, 43 (2008), 171-194 (p. 174). 4 See Whyte, p. 173. 5 The thesis will build upon the valuable work which has already been done in this area. See, for example, Jacob Golomb and Robert S. Wistrich (eds.), Nietzsche, Godfather of Fascism? On the Uses and Abuses of a Philosophy (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2002). This study includes a chapter on Jünger and National Socialism: David Ohana, ‘Nietzsche and the Fascist Dimension: The Case of Ernst Jünger’, pp. 263-90. This chapter builds on an earlier essay: David Ohana, ‘Nietzsche and Ernst Jünger: From Nihilism to Totalitarianism’, History of European Ideas, 11 (1989), 751-758. 6 See n. 1 above. For an overview of the bewildering range and variety of Nietzsche interpretations published during the interwar period, see Richard Frank Krummel, Nietzsche und der deutsche Geist, 3 vols (Berlin and New York: de Gruyter, 1974-1998), Vol. 3 (Ein Schrifttumsverzeichnis der Jahre 1918-1945). 2 the 1920s was an essentially ideological rather than overtly political movement on the political Right, but some have argued that it represented a pre-Nazi set of ideas which ‘helped prepare the ground for National Socialism’ by weakening middle-class intellectual resistance to Nazi ideology,7 and which, more broadly, provided and strengthened ideas for all branches of German nationalism, including National Socialism.8 Despite these claims, Jünger’s association with this particular brand of right- wing nationalism does not justify claims that he was a proto-Nazi.9 Before considering any of the selected examples of how Nietzsche has been used, it is first necessary to address a number of terms – most notably ‘influence’ and ‘nationalism’ – which are crucial to this study, and also to contextualise the Nietzsche appropriations under discussion. Given Nietzsche’s inherent ambiguities or, as Roger Woods has put it, his ‘fragmentary mode of expression’,10 varying and often contradictory interpretations of his work are possible, as will become apparent. Nietzsche’s style, often writing in short aphorisms, leaves him peculiarly vulnerable to (mis)appropriation, most infamously and damagingly at the hands of the Nazis. Over the course of his working life, Nietzsche wrote prolifically but it is difficult to trace a single thread through his works; as such, there are numerous ideas which are explored and expanded to varying degrees, but not one that stands out as the Nietzschean philosophy. In the words of the Nietzsche scholar, Steven E. Aschheim: ‘Nietzsche’s 7 Roger Woods, The Conservative Revolution in the Weimar Republic (Basingstoke: Macmillan, 1996), p. 2. 8 See Kurt Sontheimer, Antidemokratisches Denken in der Weimarer Republik. Die politischen Ideen des deutschen Nationalismus zwischen 1918 und 1933, 2nd edn (Munich: Nymphenburger Verlag, 1964), p. 29. 9 See Nikolaus Wachsmann, ‘Marching Under the Swastika? Ernst Jünger and National Socialism, 1918- 1933’, Journal of Contemporary History, 33 (1998), 573-89. 10 Woods, The Conservative Revolution in the Weimar Republic, p. 30. 3 work cannot be reduced to an essence nor can it be said to possess a single and clear authoritative meaning.’11 Consequently, readers and interpreters
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